L’Humanité, the far-left paper, also takes an economic angle. It reckons France is on a slippery slope to privatization of road network maintenance. It accuses the government of expecting the road network to deliver more even though there have been budget cuts. It reckons that bosses in private companies are rubbing their hands as they eye road maintenance contracts.

The right-wing paper Le Figaro, in its editorial, says that situation cannot last. Editorial writer Yves Thréard argues Ivory Coast will either have a civil war or the defeated president, meaning Gbagbo, will have to give way. Thréard says Laurent Gbagbo’s wife Simone is determined to hold on to power. He compares the Gbagbos to the Ceausescu couple - Nicolae and Elena - in Romania at the end of their rule.

The law requires a 20 per cent quota for such housing in districts with a population of more than 3,500 people (or 1,500 for districts in the Paris region). The paper says that quota is not being respected. Libération argues that’s scandalous in light of the current housing crisis. The paper says France needs hundreds of thousands of new homes.